Approximately 300,000 patients in the United States undergo coronary artery grafting operations every year. Conventional coronary artery grafting operations required that the beating of the heart be ceased during the procedure. A heart-lung machine was used to pump and oxygenate the patient's blood while the heart was stopped. Off-pump surgery, or beating-heart surgery, however, has become an attractive alternative to traditional surgery incorporating a heart-lung machine.
Tissue stabilizers are used in beating-heart surgery for holding, lifting, and rotating the beating heart to expose coronary arteries on any of the heart's surfaces, and to hold the tissue almost stationary where the surgeon is working. Tissue stabilizers typically include suction pods that hold a surface tissue of the heart stable while a surgeon attaches a transplanted vessel around blockages in one or more coronary arteries. The tissue stabilizer can help the surgeon to position the suction pods on a target area of the heart surface, stabilize a suture site, and work with an unimpeded view as a bypass is sutured in place.